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BV  4211  .C8 
Cuyler,  Theodore  L. 

1909. 
The  young  preacher 


1822- 


THE   YOUNG  PREACHER 


THE  YOUNG  PREACHER 


BY 

THEODORE  L.  CUYLER,  D.  D. 

LATE  PASTOR  OF  LAFAYETTE  AVENUE  CHURCH,  BROOKLYN 


£ 


FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  CHICAGO 

112   Fifth  Avenue  148  &  150  Madison  St. 

Publishers  0/  Evangelical  Literature 


Copyright, 

1893, 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company. 


The  following  chapters  have  already  ap- 
peared in  the  "Golden  Rule,"  and  are  now 
published  in  a  more  permanent  form,  at  the 
request  of  many  readers  of  that  journal. 

T.  L.  C. 


TO 
MY  YOUNG  BRETHREN  WHO  ARE  CALLED  OF  GOD 
TO  PREACH 

"JESUS  CHRIST  AND  HIM  CRUCIFIED" 

THIS  LITTLE  VOLUME 
IS  AFFECTIONATELY  INSCRIBED. 


Vll 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Why  should  you  be  a  Minister  ? 1 

II.  Pastoral  Work 13 

III.  Growing  Sermons 25 

IV.  More  about  Sermcn-Growing 37 

V.  The  Delivery  of  Sermons 49 

VI.  Health  and  Habits 61 

VII.  Winning  Souls 73 

VIII.  How  to  have  a  Working  Church 87 

IX.  The  Man  behind  the  Message 99 


IX 


CHAPTER    I. 
WHY  SHOULD  YOU  BE  A  MINISTER? 


I. 

WHY   SHOULD  YOU   BE  A  MINISTER? 

IN  this  series  of  articles  addressed  to 
young  preachers  I  shall  draw  chiefly 
from  ray  own  personal  experience  and 
observations  during  the  last  forty-six 
years.  Superlatively  happy  years  have 
they  been  to  me;  for  I  have  often  said 
that  no  monarch's  throne  and  no  presi- 
dential chair  is  so  exalted  as  a  pulpit  in 
which  a  living  preacher  presents  a  living 
Christ  to  dying  souls.  Every  minister 
who  reads  these  columns,  and  is  worthy 
of  his  high  calling,  will  doubtless  echo 
the  same  sentiment.  But  a  vast  number 
of  young  Christians  among  our  readers 
are  raising  the  question,  Ought  I  to 
enter  the  ministry?    Let  me  say  a  few 

3 


4  THE   YOUNG   PREACHER. 

frank  words  to  those  who  are  debating 
with  themselves  this  vitally  important 
question. 

That  the  demand  in  our  country  for 
effective  ministers  is  far  in  excess  of  the 
present  supply  is  very  evident.  Our 
population  increases  more  rapidly  than 
the  supply  of  preachers;  and  of  those 
who  have  entered  the  ministry,  a  con- 
siderable proportion  have  evidently  mis- 
taken their  calling.  No  mistake  can  be 
more  lamentable  than  this ;  sometimes  it 
is  made  from  a  false  estimate  of  one's 
self,  and  sometimes  from  the  urgent  per- 
suasions of  indiscreet  friends.  But  if 
there  are  some  in  the  sacred  ministry 
who  ought  not  to  be  there,  I  feel  quite 
sure  that  there  are  many  more  outside 
of  the  ministry  who  ought  to  be  there. 
The  legal,  medical,  editorial,  engineering, 
and  some  other  professions,  are  over- 
crowded. The  only  occupation  in  Amer- 
ica that  is  not  overdone  is  the  occupa- 


WHY  SHOULD    YOU  BE  A  MINISTER?       5 

tion  of  serving  Jesus  Christ  and  saving 
souls.  I  do  not  undervalue  the  conse- 
crated labor  of  laymen ;  I  do  not  affirm 
that  a  Christian  cannot  serve  his  Master 
effectively  in  any  other  sphere  than  that 
of  the  ministry ;  but  I  do  affirm  that  the 
ambition  for  worldly  gains  and  worldly 
honors  is  drawing  some  of  the  church's 
best  blood  into  their  greedy  outlets.  All 
this  is  undeniably  true ;  yet,  whenever  a 
young  man  comes  to  me  for  advice  in  re- 
gard to  entering  the  ministry,  I  generally 
put  him  through  a  course  of  pretty  close 
questions. 

In  the  first  place,  my  good  brother, 
have  you  any  natural  gift  of  speech? 
The  chief  business  of  a  preacher  is  to 
speak;  and  if,  from  either  physical  or 
mental  deficiency,  you  have  no  ability  to 
address  an  audience,  then  you  will  be  as 
useless  as  a  bell  without  any  clapper. 
Great  orators  are  few,  and  it  is  not  nec- 
essary that  you  should  be  one ;  mere  flu- 


6  THE   YOUNG  PREACHER. 

ency  of  utterance  with  nothing  to  utter 
will  make  you  only  a  "  tinkling  cymbal" ; 
and  yet  a  certain  degree  of  fluent  speech 
is  indispensable  if  you  ever  expect  to 
command  any  auditors.  Test  yourself  in 
the  Christian  Endeavor  meetings  or  else- 
where, and  find  out  whether  you  can  say 
a  good  thing  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 
people  listen  to  you.  If,  after  several 
fair  and  honest  trials,  you  completely 
fail,  then  you  may  conclude  that  God  did 
not  make  you  for  a  preacher.  Serve  him 
in  some  other  way;  but  do  not  let  a 
pious  intention  deceive  you  into  a  pro- 
fession for  which  you  are  not  fitted. 

Second,  have  you  the  physical  health 
to  endure  the  strain  that  the  duties  of 
the  ministry  will  lay  upon  you?  Some 
preachers,  like  Richard  Baxter,  Robert 
Hall,  and  Dr.  Pay  son,  of  Portland,  have 
wrought  a  glorious  work  in  spite  of  the 
bodily  infirmities  that  overtook  them; 
but  it  is  not  safe  for  any  young  man  to 


WHY  SHOULD    YOU  BE  A   MINISTER?       7 

undertake  the  ministry  if  he  is  an  inva- 
lid, or  even  likely  to  become  one.  Next 
to  a  heart  full  of  love  to  Christ,  and  a  clear 
brain,  you  will  need  good  lungs  and  good 
legs;  the  first,  in  order  to  preach;  and 
the  other,  in  order  to  go  about  among 
your  flock.  If  you  are  too  frail  to  endure 
the  strain  of  study  and  public  speaking, 
if  your  nerves  are  rickety  and  your  stom- 
ach hopelessly  dyspeptic,  then  you  will 
enter  upon  your  work  heavily  handi- 
capped. At  a  later  time  I  will  offer 
some  hints  to  ministers  on  the  preserva- 
tion of  health ;  but  do  not  start  out  with 
no  health  to  preserve. 

Third,  have  you  the  mental  furniture 
to  equip  you  for  the  ministry  of  the  gos- 
pel !  Genius  is  not  essential,  unless  it  be 
"  a  genius  of  godliness."  Pulpit  geniuses 
are  rare;  and,  if  God  intended  to  save 
the  world  by  them,  he  would  have  created 
more  of  them.  Some  of  the  most  thor- 
oughly useful,  effective,  and  blessed  miu- 


8  THE    TOUXG    PREACHER. 

isters  I  know  of  have  been,  or  are,  men 
of  very  moderate  intellectual  powers.  No 
two  pastors  in  New  York  led  more  of 
their  congregations  to  Jesus  Christ  than 
did  the  late  Dr.  B.  and  Dr.  N. ;  yet 
neither  of  them  ever  uttered  a  brilliant 
thing.  They  both  had  eminent  piety, 
warm,  loving  hearts,  and  an  abundance 
of  good  common  sense.  This  last  quality 
is  indispensable.  If  you  have  not  learn- 
ing, you  can  by  hard  study  acquire  it ;  if 
you  have  not  a  strong  constitution,  you 
may  by  wise  regimen  strengthen  it;  if 
you  have  not  money  to  pay  for  your 
education,  you  may  earn  it;  but  if  you 
have  not  good  common  sense,  then  (as  a 
quaint  old  preacher  said)  "  may  God  pity 
you,  for  you  cannot  get  that  anywhere." 

Fourth,  are  you  fervently  and  honestly 
praying  for  heavenly  direction  and  care- 
fully watching  the  leadings  of  Providence  ? 
When  God  calls  a  man  to  the  ministry, 
•he  is  apt  to  let  the  man  know  it.    I  be- 


WHY  SHOULD   YOU  BE  A   MINISTER?       9 

lieve  in  answers  to  honest  prayer,  and  I 
believe  in  the  leadings  of  the  Holy  Spirit ; 
and  if  yon  believe  in  them  also,  and  will 
keep  yonr  eyes  open  and  heart  hnmble 
and  docile,  yon  will  be  likely  to  get  some 
clear  indications  as  to  yonr  dnty.  Dur- 
ing the  first  eighteen  months  after  I  grad- 
uated from  college — months  mostly  spent 
in  teaching— I  was  balancing  between  the 
law  and  the  ministry.  Many  of  my  rela- 
tives urged  me  to  become  a  lawyer,  as 
my  father  and  grandfather  had  been ;  but 
my  godly  mother  had  dedicated  me  to  the 
ministry  from  infancy,  and  her  counsels 
all  leaned  toward  the  pulpit.  One  win- 
ter afternoon  I  rode  off  five  miles  to  a 
prayer-meeting  in  a  neighboring  village. 
It  was  held  in  the  parlor  of  a  private 
house.  I  arose  and  spoke  for  ten  min- 
utes ;  and,  when  the  meeting  was  over,  a 
person  said  to  me,  "  Your  talk  did  me 
good."  On  my  way  home  the  thought 
flashed  into  my  mind,  "  If  ten  minutes' 


10  THE    YOUNG    PREACHER. 

talk  to-day  helped  one  soul,  why  not 
preach  all  the  time  ? "  That  one  thought 
decided  me  on  the  spot.  Our  lives  turn 
on  small  pivots ;  and,  if  you  will  let  God 
lead  you,  the  path  will  open  before  your 
footsteps. 

Finally,  let  me  say  that  no  young  man 
ought  to  enter  the  ministry  unless  he 
feels  an  intense  and  invincible  longing 
for  the  work, — a  desire  so  strong  that  he 
will  gladly  submit  to  any  hardships  and 
privations  in  order  to  carry  out  his  holy 
purpose.  When  Dr.  John  Todd,  the  au- 
thor of  the  "  Student's  Manual,"  set  out 
for  his  education  for  the  ministry,  he 
walked  all  the  way  to  college,  and  slept 
on  the  ground  out-of-doors  for  lack  of 
money  to  pay  for  his  lodgings.  If  you 
do  not  feel  in  your  very  bones,  "  Woe  is 
me  if  I  cannot  preach  the  gospel !  "  then 
let  it  alone.  God  is  not  calling  you  to 
a  work  that  an  archangel  might  covet. 
You  will  need   all  your  zeal,   all  your 


WHY  SHOULD    YOU  BE  A   MINISTER f     11 

faith,  and  all  your  staying  power,  to 
carry  you  through ;  for  the  life  of  a  faith- 
ful, courageous,  and  consecrated  minister 
is  not  a  swing  in  a  hammock.  It  is  the 
happiest  life  on  earth,  if  you  enter  upon 
it  with  a  pure,  unselfish  motive,  and  pur- 
sue it,  not  for  your  own  glory,  but  for 
the  glory  of  your  Master.  Go  to  that 
all-wise  and  loving  Master,  my  young 
brother,  and  ask  him  the  question  that 
Saul  of  Tarsus  asked,  "  Lord,  what  wilt 
thou  have  me  to  do  f  "  Whatever  he  saith 
unto  your  conscience,  do  it. 


CHAPTER  II. 
PASTORAL  WORK—HOW  TO  DO  IT. 


13 


II. 

PASTORAL  WORK — HOW  TO  DO  IT. 

THE  work  of  every  minister  is  twofold ; 
it  is  partly  in  the  pulpit  and  partly 
out  of  the  pulpit.  The  first  is  the  work 
of  the  preacher;  the  second  is  that  of 
the  pastor.  The  two  ought  to  be  insep- 
arable ;  what  the  providence  of  God  and 
good  common  sense  have  joined  togeth- 
er, let  no  man  venture  to  put  asunder. 
You  will  be  in  your  pulpit  only  four  or 
five  hours  in  each  week;  what  you  are 
to  be  and  to  do  during  those  infinitely 
important  hours  will  be  the  theme  of  my 
plain,  loving  counsels  to  you  in  a  future 
article.  But  your  labors  outside  of  your 
pulpit  will  occupy  more  or  less  of  your 
time  during  every  day  of  the  week ;  they 

15 


16  THE   YOVXG   PREACHER. 

embrace  the  whole  sphere  of  your  pas- 
toral intercourse  with  your  flock, — your 
dealings  with  the  awakened,  with  the 
sick  and  the  afflicted,  with  the  bereaved 
and  the  troubled;  your  organization  of 
Christian  work  in  your  parish,  and  your 
executive  oversight  of  all  the  manifold 
activities  of  the  church.  Your  great  busi- 
ness is  to  win  souls  to  Jesus  Christ,  and 
to  build  them  up  in  godly  living ;  and 
all  this  cannot  be  accomplished  by  two 
sermons  a  week,  even  if  they  were  the 
best  that  Paul  himself  could  deliver.  In 
fact,  the  largest  part  of  Paul's  recorded 
work  was  quite  other  than  public  preach- 
ing. As  for  our  blessed  Lord,  he  has 
left  us  one  extended  discourse  and  a  few 
shorter  ones;  but  oh,  how  niany  narra- 
tives we  have  of  his  personal  visits,  per- 
sonal conversations,  and  labors  of  love 
with  the  sick,  the  sinning,  and  the  suffer- 
ing! He  was  the  Shepherd  who  knew 
every  sheep. 


PASTORAL    WORK— HOW  TO  DO  IT.         17 

Determine,  then,  from  the  very  start, 
that  you  will  be  a  thorough  pastor.  Only 
a  few  men  can  be  great  preachers,  but 
every  minister  who  has  a  good  heart  and 
good  sense  can  be  a  good  pastor.  Devote 
the  forenoon  of  every  day,  except  Mon- 
day, to  your  study,  and  do  not  allow  any- 
body to  intrude  upon  you,  unless  he  or 
she  comes  there  on  the  Master's  business. 
My  custom  was  to  pin  on  my  study- 
door  a  card,  "  Very  Busy ;  "  this  had  the 
wholesome  effect  of  shutting  out  mere 
formal  calls,  and  of  shortening  the  calls 
of  those  who  had  some  important  errand. 
Having  given  your  forenoon  to  your  stud- 
ies, give  your  afternoons  to  pastoral  visi- 
tation. The  physical  exercise  alone  will 
be  a  benefit,  and  the  spiritual  benefits  will 
be  tenfold  more.  Secure  a  complete  rec- 
ord of  the  "whereabouts"  of  your  con- 
gregation. Request  from  the  pulpit  that 
prompt  information  be  given  you  of  any 
change  of  residence,  and  also  of  any  case 


18  THE   YOUNG  PREACHER. 

of  sickness  or  trouble  of  any  kind.  En- 
courage your  people  to  send  you  word 
when  there  is  any  case  of  religious  inter- 
est in  their  families  or  any  matter  of  im- 
portance to  discuss  with  you.  In  short, 
treat  your  flock  exactly  as  if  they  were 
your  own  family.  Be  perfectly  at  home 
in  their  homes. 

You  should  manage  to  visit  every  fam- 
ily at  least  once  in  each  year,  and  as  much 
oftener  as  circumstances  may  require. 
If  you  are  wise  enough  not  to  have 
any  "  loafing  "  places,  you  can  easily  get 
through  the  largest  congregation  that  you 
are  likely  ever  to  have.  Spurgeon  had  an 
assistant  pastor  for  his  immense  flock; 
but  he  made  it  a  rule  to  visit  the  sick  or 
the  dying  in  as  many  cases  as  possible. 
He  once  remarked  to  a  friend,  "I  have 
been  to-day  to  visit  two  of  my  church- 
members  who  are  near  eternity,  and  both 
are  as  happy  as  if  they  were  going  to  a 
wedding.     Oh,  it  makes  me  preach  like 


PASTORAL    WORK— HOW  TO  DO  IT.         19 

a  lion  when  I  see  how  my  people  can 
die." 

It  has  always  been  my  custom  to  take 
a  particular  neighborhood,  and  to  call  on 
every  parishioner  in  that  street  or  dis- 
trict ;  but  I  have  seldom  found  it  wise  to 
send  word  in  advance  to  any  family  that 
I  would  visit  them  on  a  certain  day  or 
hour.  For  I  might  be  prevented  from 
coming,  and  thus  subject  them  to  disap- 
pointment or  annoyance.  Eun  the  risk 
as  to  finding  them  at  home ;  and,  if  they 
are  all  absent,  then  leave  your  card,  and 
try  again  at  another  time.  If  you  come 
in  upon  your  people  unawares,  as  you 
commonly  will,  it  will  depend  upon  your- 
self to  secure  a  cordial  welcome.  If  you 
come  in  with  a  hearty  salutation,  and  ask 
them  to  allow  you  to  sit  down  with  them 
wherever  they  are,  regardless  of  dress 
or  ceremony,  you  will  soon  be  perfectly 
at  home  with  them.  No  one  should  be 
so  welcome  as  a  loving  pastor.    Do  not 


20  THE    TOUXG   PREACHER. 

squander  your  call  in  idle  trivialities  or 
gossip.  Encourage  them  to  talk  with  you 
about  the  affairs  of  your  church,  about  the 
Sabbath  services  and  the  truths  preached, 
and  the  influence  that  your  message  is 
having  upon  them.  In  this  way  you  may 
discover  whether  your  shots  are  striking, 
for  the  gunnery  that  hits  no  one  is  not 
worth  the  powder.  Fishing  for  compli- 
ments is  beneath  you ;  but  it  does  cheer 
a  pastor's  heart  to  be  told,  "  Your  sermon 
last  Sunday  brought  me  a  great  blessing ; " 
"  It  helped  me  all  the  week ; "  or,  better 
still,  "  Your  sermon  brought  me  to  decide 
for  Christ."  In  a  careful  and  delicate  way 
seek  to  draw  out  your  people  in  regard 
to  their  spiritual  condition;  if  you  find 
that  any  of  the  family  is  anxious  about 
his  or  her  soul,  or  has  any  peculiar  spir- 
itual trouble,  then  manage  to  have  a  pri- 
vate and  unreserved  conversation  with 
that  person.  Be  careful  how  you  ever 
violate  the  confidence  reposed  in  you.    A 


PASTORAL    WORK— HOW  TO  DO   IT.         21 

family  physician  and  a  faithful  pastor 
often  have  to  know  some  things  that  they 
do  not  like  to  know,  but  they  should  not 
let  any  one  else  know  them. 

This  intimate,  personal  intercourse  with 
your  flock  will  enable  you  to  bring  the  un- 
decided to  a  decision  for  Christ.  It  will 
also  enable  you  to  clear  up  difficulties  and 
to  solve  doubts,  gently  to  rebuke  the  de- 
linquent, and  to  encourage  the  diffident 
and  desponding.  A  close,  hearty,  person- 
al talk  will  often  accomplish  more  than  a 
hundred  sermons.  As  a  school  of  practi- 
cal theology  there  is  nothing  like  dealing 
with  a  human  soul  in  its  various  needs  or 
conflicts  and  temptations.  The  first  re- 
vival that  I  ever  had  (in  my  little  church 
at  Burlington,  K  J.)  was  worth  more  to 
me  than  the  same  length  of  time  spent  in 
the  theological  seminary.  Next  to  God's 
Word,  the  most  important  thing  for  you 
to  understand  is  the  human  heart.  Out 
of  the  knowledge  that  you  gain  in  your 


22  THE   YOUXG   PREACHER. 

intimate  intercourse  with  your  people  you 
will  often  make  some  of  your  best  practi- 
cal discourses.  My  people  have  given  me 
almost  as  many  sermons  as  I  have  given 
to  them.  A  living  person  is  worth  a 
dozen  dead  books  to  instruct  you. 

"A  house-going  minister  makes  a 
church-going  people."  He  wins  hearts. 
If  you  make  yourself  at  home  in  every- 
body's home,  if  you  are  hearty  in .  your 
manner, — especially  with  the  children, — 
if  you  come  often  to  visit  them  in  their 
sickness  and  in  their  sorrow,  if  you  deal 
with  them  frankly  and  lovingly,  you  will 
gradually  weave  a  cord  around  their 
hearts  that  is  not  easily  broken.  They 
will  forgive  a  poor  sermon,  and  stand  a 
plain  sermon  without  flinching.  It  is 
your  business  to  be  popular,  not  to  grat- 
ify vanity,  but  to  make  your  heaven ly 
message  winsome.  You  represent  Christ. 
Study  to  win  everybody.  Take  an  inter- 
est   in    everybody.      Never    slight    the 


PASTORAL    WORK— HOW  TO  DO  IT.         23 

smallest  child,  or  poorest  or  most  ob- 
scure human  creature  in  your  parish. 
Never  knuckle  to  the  rich ;  never  neglect 
the  poor.  The  most  effective  ministers, 
who  build  up  the  most  solid  churches, 
are  the  good  pastors.  If  many  a  minis- 
ter would  take  part  of  the  time  that  he 
now  spends  in  polishing  his  sermons  (and 
often  polishing  all  the  edge  off),  and  would 
devote  it  to  going  among  his  flock,  he 
would  have  a  bigger  congregation  and 
vastly  more  conversions  to  Christ.  All 
this  pastoral  work  will  consume  time, 
and  will  often  put  a  sharp  strain  on  your 
nerves.  No  matter;  it  will  pay  in  the 
end.  Nothing  costs  too  much  that  will 
save  a  soul.  The  shepherd  who  is  above 
the  watching  and  the  tending  and  the 
nursing  of  his  flock  will  soon  have  no 
flock  to  watch. 


CHAPTER  III. 
GROWING  SERMONS. 


25 


III. 

GROWING   SERMONS. 

A  GREAT  many  sermons  are  made,  and 
very  bunglingly  made,  too;  but  the 
best  sermons  grow.  The  seed,  or  root, 
of  them  is  lodged  in  the  preacher's  mind, 
and  often  by  the  direct  agency  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  It  should  always  be  a  pas- 
sage from  God's  inspired  and  infallible 
Word.  Your  divine  commission  is  to 
"preach  the  Word,"  and  whatever  topic 
or  subject  should  be  revolving  in  your 
mind,  yet  the  sermon  on  that  topic  should 
have  a  root  in  the  Bible.  The  men  who 
draw  from  God's  inexhaustible  reservoir 
of  truth  are  commonly  the  men  who  hold 
out ;  for  human  brains  often  run  dry,  but 
the  Bible  never  does.     Spurgeon  was  al- 

27 


28  THE   YOUXG   PREACHEB. 

ways  a  closely  textual  preacher,  and  that 
was  one  great  secret  of  his  perennial 
power.  The  brilliant  Theodore  Parker, 
of  Boston,  sometimes  took  his  text  from 
Shakespeare;  he  concocted  therefrom 
bright  essays,  but  they  did  not  contain 
gospel  enough  to  save  a  mouse. 

It  has  always  been  my  custom  to 
keep  a  little  memorandum-book  in  which 
I  noted  down  any  Bible  passage  that 
seemed  especially  adapted  to  the  pulpit, 
and  so  I  always  had  by  me  a  supply  to 
draw  from  when  I  sat  down  to  work  on 
my  sermon  on  Tuesday  morning;  for  I 
seldom  left  the  choice  of  my  theme  any 
later  than  that  day  in  the  week.  Be  on 
the  lookout  for  themes  all  the  time  and 
everywhere.  As  I  happened  to  meet  a 
man  one  day,  and  mentioned  to  him  the 
fact  that  a  criminal  was  to  be  hanged  on 
that  day,  he  replied,  "Yes,  poor  creature, 
the  wages  of  sin  is  death."  That  old,  fa- 
miliar passage  so  impressed  me  at  the 


GROWING  SERMONS.  29 

moment  that  I  went  home  and  began  a 
discourse  on  it  immediately.  It  is  a  hap- 
py thing  for  you  when  some  out-of-the- 
way  passage  that  is  seldom  preached  from 
opens  itself  to  you  in  a  fresh  and  striking 
way;  for  then  you  can  present  to  your 
people  something  that  they  had  probably 
never  heard  before,  and  the  very  novelty 
of  the  text  excites  curiosity  and  enchains 
attention.  Sensational  preachers  often 
hit  upon  odd  texts,  and  handle  them 
grotesquely;  as  when  one  of  this  tribe 
preached  on  the  words,  "  Let  her  drive !  " 
and  another  one  founded  a  discousre 
against  the  practice  of  immersion  on  the 
words,  "  Beware  of  divers."  While  clowns 
in  the  pulpit  perpetrate  such  follies,  there 
is  still  a  legitimate  argument  in  favor  of 
novel  texts,  when  handled  wisely  and  de- 
voutly ;  for  such  presentations  of  sacred 
truth  give  your  hearers  a  new  idea  of  the 
inexhaustible  wealth  and  wide  applica- 
tions of  God's  Word. 


30  THE   YOUNG   PREACHER. 

When  you  have  selected  your  passage 
from  the  Bible,  let  your  sermon  grow 
legitimately  out  of  it.  The  connection 
between  every  good  sermon  and  its  text 
is  just  as  vital  as  the  connection  between 
an  apple-tree  and  its  roots.  Sometimes 
a  lazy  minister  endeavors  to  palm  off  an 
old  sermon  for  a  new  one  by  changing 
the  text;  but  this  artifice  should  soon 
expose  itself,  for  the  change  would  be 
like  the  decapitation  of  "a  man,  fatal  to 
life.  The  text  ought  to  spring  up  as  the 
root  of  your  discourse,  and  send  its  trunk 
towering  aloft  as  the  central  idea  of  that 
discourse.  All  the  arguments,  instruc- 
tions, and  exhortations  are  but  as  the 
boughs  branching  off  from  this  central 
truth,  giving  breadth,  vigor,  and  spiritual 
beauty  to  the  whole  organic  production. 
The  unity  of  your  sermon — yes,  and  the 
spiritual  power  of  it,  also — will  common- 
ly depend  upon  its  adherence  to  the  great 
divine   truth  contained  in   the   inspired 


GROWING   SERMONS.  31 

text.  Remember  that  your  text  is  God's 
part  of  your  sermou;  aud  from  that 
should  sprout  out  manifold  vital  and  vig- 
orous thoughts,  like  the  fruit-laden  limbs 
of  a  Bartlett  pear-tree.  Be  careful  that 
you  do  not  tie  on  the  trunk  a  lot  of  dead 
sticks  that  have  no  organic  connection 
with  the  trunk,  and  only  disfigure  its 
comeliness.  The  more  thoroughly  you 
get  your  text  into  your  very  soul,  the 
more  you  will  get  it  into  your  sermon. 
Very  often  you  may  introduce  the  results 
of  your  own  personal  experience  into 
your  preaching ;  and,  if  you  live  close  to 
God,  he  will  be  pouring  his  Spirit  into 
your  heart;  and  these  experiences  will 
be  among  the  most  richly  profitable  por- 
tions of  your  pulpit  instructions.  If  you 
water  your  text  with  prayer,  it  will  assur- 
edly grow  into  a  goodly  tree,  and  "the 
fruit  thereof  shall  shake  like  Lebanon." 

As  to  what  may  be  called  the  mechan- 
ical process  of  sermonizing,  you  must  fol- 


32  THE    YOUNG   PREACHER. 

low  your  own  instincts.  There  lias  been, 
and  probably  will  ever  be,  an  endless  dis- 
cussion about  the  comparative  merits  of 
written  and  of  extemporaneous  preach- 
ing. No  rule  is  the  best  rule.  Find  out 
by  practice  which  method  you  can  use  to 
the  best  advantage,  and  then  pursue  it. 
No  man  ever  fails  who  understands  his 
forte,  and  no  man  succeeds  who  does  not. 
Some  ministers  cannot  extemporize  ef- 
fectively, if  they  try  ever  so  hard ;  there 
are  others  who,  like  Gladstone,  can  think 
best  when  they  are  on  their  legs,  and  are 
inspired  by  an  audience.  Probably  the 
two  greatest  British  preachers  of  this 
century  were  Chalmers  and  Spurgeon. 
Chalmers  wrote  every  line  of  his  magnifi- 
cent discourses,  and  delivered  them  with 
such  tremendous  vehemence  that  he  made 
the  rafters  roar.  Spurgeon  was  a  prince 
of  extemporaneous  orators.  When  I  once 
asked  him  whether  he  ever  wrote  any  of 
his  sermons,  or  even  any  portion  of  them, 


GROWING  SERMONS.  33 

his  reply  was,  "I  had  rather  be  hung." 
His  method  was  to  fill  up  the  cask  all 
through  the  week  by  diligent  study  of 
God's  Word  and  of  all  nutritious  books ; 
and  then,  when  Saturday  evening  came, 
he  selected  his  particular  text,  and  on  Sun- 
day morning  he  just  turned  the  spigot, 
and  out  flowed  the  pure,  sweet  gospel 
in  an  abundant  stream.  No  man  could 
preach  after  that  fashion  who  was  not  a 
close  student  of  books  and  of  human  na- 
ture, and  who  had  not  a  great  gift  of 
ready,  fluent  speech.  Young  brother,  if 
you  find  that  your  sermons  are  running 
out,  or  furnish  only  a  thin,  scanty  stream, 
fill  up  your  cask. 

The  great  danger  of  extemporaneous 
preaching  is  that  it  may  lead  you  into 
disconnected  rambling,  or  mere  effusive 
gush.  Therefore  you  ought  to  form  your 
style,  at  the  outset,  by  careful  and  sys- 
tematic writing.  When  Spurgeon  was 
a  youth,  he  wrote  most  of  his  sermons. 


34  TEE   TOrXG  PREACHER. 

Dr.  Richard  S.  Storrs  is  by  all  odds  the 
most  elegant  and  affluent  extemporane- 
ous orator  in  America;  but  for  twenty 
years  he  carefully  wrote  all  his  discourses. 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  in  the  habit  of 
writing  about  half  of  the  sermon;  and 
then,  turning  away  from  his  notes,  he  in- 
terjected the  thoughts  that  came  to  him 
in  the  heat  of  the  moment,  and  presently 
returned  to  his  manuscript.  This  has 
been  my  own  method  of  sermonizing, 
until  about  fifteen  years  ago,  when  I 
adopted  the  plan  of  preparing  a  short 
brief  and  tucking  it  into  a  Bagster's 
Bible.  Dr.  John  Hall  writes  carefully, 
and  leaves  his  manuscripts  at  home.  So 
does  Dr.  Alexander  McLaren,  of  Man- 
chester, who  is  to-day  the  most  splendid 
sermonizer  in  Great  Britain.  The  elo- 
quent Guthrie  of  Scotland  committed 
his  discourses  to  memory,  and  delivered 
them  in  a  torrent  of  godly  emotion. 
Without  citing  any  further  cases,  let 


GBOWING   SERMONS.  35 

me  exhort  you  to  study  your  sermons 
most  thoroughly,  conscientiously,  and 
prayerfully,  whether  you  commit  them 
to  paper  or  not.  The  most  slipshod  and 
abominable  of  all  methods  is  that  of  ex- 
temporaneous thinking,  or  attempting  to 
shake  a  sermon  out  of  an  empty  sleeve. 
It  is  this  style  of  offhand  pulpit  chatter 
that  has  brought  extemporaneous  preach- 
ing into  discredit.  If  you  are  careful  to 
plant  a  text  in  your  mind,  water  it  with 
prayer,  and  let  it  grow  all  the  week,  and 
branch  out  into  fruitful  boughs  of  prac- 
tical spiritual  truth,  you  will  never  be 
ashamed  to  look  at  your  people  from 
your  pulpit,  or  to  look  at  yourself  when 
you  go  home  from  church. 


CHAPTER    IV. 
MORE  ABOUT  SERMON-GROWING. 


37 


IV. 

MORE  ABOUT  SERMON-GROWING. 

AS  every  orchard  contains  a  variety  of 
fruit-trees,  so  you  should  aim  at 
variety  in  the  growth  of  your  discourses. 
Some  preachers  run  into  an  excess  of 
doctrinal  sermons;  others,  into  the  con- 
troversial ;  and  others,  into  the  hortatory. 
Dr.  Charles  Hodge  used  to  select  his  texts 
from  the  epistles,  and  he  preached  theol- 
ogy— and  very  sound  theology,  too;  Dr. 
Talmage  is  apt  to  find  his  texts  in  the 
narrative  portions  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  his  sermons  are  vivid  pictures.  The 
Bible  is  a  miracle  of  variety ;  every  note 
of  the  gamut  is  struck  in  its  pages,  and 
every  chord  in  the  human  heart  is  made 
to  vibrate  by  its  truths. 

39 


40  THE   YOUNG    PREACHER. 

The  backbone  of  your  work  in  the  pul- 
pit ought  to  be  doctrinal.  Jesus  Christ 
dealt  in  doctrine ;  in  the  third  chapter  of 
John,  during  the  course  of  a  single  con- 
versation with  Nicodemus,  he  discussed 
human  guilt,  the  atonement,  regenera- 
tion, the  Trinity,  divine  love  in  redemp- 
tion, the  need  of  faith,  and  the  promise 
of  heaven.  These  great  central  truths 
are  all  packed  into  one  short,  simple, 
solemn  talk.  Paul  is  the  great  master 
of  divine  theology;  his  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  was  well  pronounced  by  Cole- 
ridge to  be  the  profoundest  book  in 
existence.  And  oh,  how  his  mighty  soul 
kindles  and  burns  with  holy  emotion ! 
My  young  brother,  if  you  are  ever  dry 
or  ever  dull,  do  not  let  it  be  when  you 
are  handling  these  great  central  truths. 
Preach  doctrine  with  passion.  Make  your 
arguments  red-hot  with  heavenly  fire. 
A  man  who  cannot  get  into  a  holy  glow 
over  such  themes  as  the  atonement,  the 


MOBE  ABOUT  SERMON-GROWING.  41 

new  birth,  the  glories  of  redemption,  the 
resurrection,  and  the  judgment  to  come, 
can  never  be  a  great  precaher  or  hold 
thoughtful  minds  under  the  spell  of  his 
power.  Finney,  the  king  of  modern  evan- 
gelists, bombarded  the  consciences  of  sin- 
ners with  a  tremendous  broadside  -of  doc- 
trine ;  the  most  acute  lawyers  and  judges 
were  attracted  by  his  logical  discourses, 
and  many  of  them  were  converted.  Yet 
he  could  be  very  rich  and  tender  in  deal- 
ing with  the  desponding  and  the  troubled. 
He  used  to  say  that  the  Bible  fared  very 
badly ;  some  Christians  gave  away  all  of 
its  precious  promises,  and  sinners  threw 
away  all  of  its  threatenings ;  and  so  there 
was  not  much  left  of  it.  In  our  day  Eev. 
B.  Fay  Mills  exhibits  many  of  the  traits 
of  Finney,  and  his  close,  pungent,  doctri- 
nal preaching  to  the  conscience  is  the 
chief  element  of  his  power.  Solid  in- 
struction ought  to  come  before  the  most 
persuasive  appeals ;  in  other  words,  you 


42  TEE    YOUNG    PREACHER. 

must  tell  your  hearers  what  to  believe  and 
what  to  do  before  you  urge  them  to  do  it. 
Merely  hortatory  sermons  seldom  amount 
to  much. 

Your  main  reliance  must  be  upon  the 
great  central,  doctrinal  truths  of  God's 
Word ;  these  you  should  preach  with  all 
the  fresh  and  vivid  illustrations,  and  all 
the  fervor,  that  you  can  command.  But 
the  Bible  is  very  rich  in  history  and  biog- 
raphy. This  is  one  of  the  internal  evi- 
dences of  its  divine  origin ;  being  written 
for  human  instruction  and  guidance,  it 
contains  every  variety  of  human  charac- 
ter. What  a  marvelous  portrait-gallery 
is  that  which  begins  with  Adam,  and  is 
followed  by  such  a  procession  of  patri- 
archs, soldiers,  statesmen,  singers,  proph- 
ets, rulers,  apostles,  mingled  with  hum- 
ble maidens,  servants,  and  little  children  ! 
Some  of  these  characters — such  as  Enoch, 
G-aius,  Dorcas,  Demas,  and  Tertius — are 
painted  in  a  single  sentence.     Out  of  all 


MORE  ABOUT  SERMOX-GBOWIXG.  43 

this  immense  gallery  you  can  select  sub- 
jects for  scores,  yes,  for  hundreds,  of 
sermons.  I  have  always  found  that  bio- 
graphical discourses  were  not  only  inter- 
esting to  almost  every  class  of  auditors, 
but  could  often  be  made  the  most  practi- 
cal and  profitable.  Robertson  of  Brigh- 
ton has  a  sermon  on  Eli,  and  Dr.  Guthrie 
one  on  Demas,  and  Dr.  McLaren  one  on 
Judas  (the  text  being  "  See  thou  to  that "), 
which  are  superb  specimens  of  portraiture, 
that  present  pungent  truth  to  every  man's 
conscience.  Rev.  John  McNeill,  who  is 
often  styled  "  the  Scottish  Spurgeon," 
deals  very  largely  with  biographical  inci- 
dents; and  his  sermons  on  the  sacrifice 
of  Abraham  and  the  expulsion  of  Hagar 
are  brilliant  specimens  of  word-painting, 
and  at  the  same  time  of  acute  analysis  of 
character  and  presentation  of  some  cen- 
tral truths  of  the  gospel.  When  present- 
ing Scripture  incidents,  be  careful  to  ad- 
here to  the  inspired  narrative,  and  not  to 


44  THE   YOUNG  PREACHER. 

overlay  it  with  any  "  modern  improve- 
ments." Even  one  of  the  greatest  evan- 
gelists of  the  day,  who  is  a  grand  practi- 
cal expounder  of  Scripture,  was  tempted 
to  make  the  servants  of  Naaman  say  to 
him,  "  Suppose  the  prophet  had  told  you 
to  take  cod-liver  oil  three  times  a  day  for 
ten  years,  wouldn't  you  have  doiie  it  ? " 

There  is  a  third  kind  of  sermons,  which 
our  forefathers  used  to  call  experimental, 
because  they  deal  mostly  with  the  inner 
life  and  the  spiritual  experience  of  God's 
people.  The  seeds  of  this  sort  of  dis- 
courses are  found  in  great  abundance  in 
the  Psalms  and  in  John's  Gospel.  Bun- 
yan's  immortal  Pilgrim  is  the  unrivaled 
masterpiece  in  the  line  of  Christian  ex- 
perience ;  after  him  come  Jeremy  Taylor's 
"  Holy  Living  and  Dying,"  Rutherford's 
"Letters,"  and  President  Edwards  on 
the  "  Religious  Affections  " ;  of  all  living 
preachers  along  this  line,  none  excels 
Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer,  of  London,  who  has 


MORE  ABOUT  SERMON-GROWING.  45 

attended  the  Northfield  conferences  for 
two  summers.  Tliis  is  a  sort  of  preach- 
ing that  requires  close,  prayerful  study 
of  the  Word  and  of  the  workings  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  on  your  own  heart.  The 
deeper  the  soil  of  godliness  in  your  own 
soul,  the  richer  will  be  the  crop  of  exper- 
imental sermons  sprouting  out  of  it.  If 
you  are  a  faithful  pastor,  studying  the 
experiences  of  your  own  people,  you  will 
gather  no  little  material  from  them  also. 
Preach,  my  dear  brother,  to  the  heart. 
The  head  is  of  but  half  as  much  conse- 
quence. Your  pulpit  is,  not  a  professor's 
chair,  nor  your  audience  a  class  of  uni- 
versity students.  They  are  a  company 
of  immortal  creatures,  who  come  to  your 
church  every  Sunday  from  the  toils,  the 
temptations,  the  trials,  the  joys,  and  the 
sorrows  of  the  week.  They  want  to  be 
fed,  and  not  with  whipped  syllabub  or 
confectionery.  Most  of  them  will  need  a 
lift ;  bruised  hearts  will  need  to  be  bound 


46  THE   YOUNG  PREACHER. 

up;  feeble  knees  to  be  strengthened;  a 
word  in  season  must  be  spoken  to  the 
weak,  the  weary,  and  the  woebegone. 
Tonic  sermons  are  always  in  order;  the 
stronger,  the  better.  Many  of  our  people 
are  like  eight-day  clocks ;  they  get  terri- 
bly run  down  during  the  week,  and  re- 
quire to  be  wound  up  again  on  Sunday. 
Try  to  steep  your  sermons  in  God's  Word 
and  in  prayer,  so  that  when  you  preach 
them  they  will  infuse  iron  into  the  blood. 
Of  course  you  will  use  all  the  illustra- 
tions you  can  get  hold  of;  but  be  careful 
that  they  illustrate  something.  When 
lugged  into  a  sermon  merely  for  the  sake 
of  ornament,  they  are  as  absurdly  out  of 
place  as  a  bouquet  would  be  if  tied  fast 
to  a  plough-handle.  The  divine  Teacher 
set  us  the  example  of  making  vital  truths 
intelligible  by  illustrations  when  he  spake 
so  often  in  parables.  All  congregations 
relish  incidents,  when  they  are  pat  for  the 
purpose.     Do  not  be  afraid  of  an  anec- 


MORE  ABOUT  SERMON-GROWING.  47 

dote,  if  it  is  serious  enough  for  God's 
house,  and  helps  to  drive  the  truth  into 
the  hearts  of  your  auditors.  During  my 
early  ministry  I  delivered  a  discourse  to 
young  men,  at  Saratoga,  and  closed  it 
with  a  solemn  story  of  a  man  who  died 
of  remorse  at  the  exposure  of  his  crime. 
The  late  Hon.  John  McLean,  a  judge  of 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  was 
in  the  congregation ;  and  the  next  day  I 
called  to  pay  my  respects  to  him.  He 
said  to  me,  "My  young  brother,  I  was 
much  interested  in  that  story  you  told 
last    evening;    it   clinched    the    sermon. 

Our  ministers  at  C used  to  introduce 

illustrative  anecdotes;  but  it  seems  to 
have  gone  out  of  fashion,  and  I  am  sorry 
for  it."  I  replied  to  him,  "Well,  I  am 
glad  to  have  a  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  in  favor  of 
telling  an  anecdote  or  personal  incident 
in  the  pulpit."  There  is  one  principle 
that  covers  all  cases;  it  is  this:  What- 


48  TEE   YOUXG  PREACHER. 

ever  makes  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
more  clear  to  the  understanding,  and 
more  effective  in  awakening  sinners,  in 
converting  souls,  in  edifying  believers, 
and  in  promoting  holiness,  is  never  out 
of  place  in  your  pulpit.  When  you  are 
preaching  for  souls,  use  any  and  every 
weapon  of  truth  within  your  reach. 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  DELIVERY  OF  SERMONS. 


49 


V. 

THE   DELIVERY   OF   SERMONS. 

THE  preaching  of  the  gospel  is  spiritual 
gunnery;  and  many  a  well-loaded 
cartridge  has  failed  to  reach  its  mark 
from  the  lack  of  powder  to  propel  it.  A 
good  sermon  committed  to  paper,  or  care- 
fully prepared  in  your  mind,  is  merely  a 
preliminary  process ;  when  you  get  into 
your  pulpit,  you  must  preach.  And 
preaching  is  not  paper-reading,  nor  is  it 
mere  frothy  gush.  It  is  the  faithful  pres- 
entation of  God's  inspired  truth  to  im- 
mortal souls;  and  that  truth  must  be 
addressed  not  only  to  the  reason,  but 
to  the  conscience  and  to  the  affections. 
Your  aim  must  be  to  arrest  the  attention 
of  your  auditors, — to  arouse  those  who 

51 


52    ■  TEE    YOUNG    PREACHER. 

are  indifferent,  to  warn  the  careless,  to 
rebuke  the  faithless  professor,  as  well  as 
to  "comfort  the  sorrowing,  strengthen  the 
weak,  and  edify  believers.  As  the  am- 
bassador of  the  living  God,  yon  must  de- 
mand and  command  a  hearing,  cost  what 
it  may.  An  advocate  strikes  for  the  jury ; 
and  if  he  does  not  gain  the  verdict,  his 
effort  is  a  failure.  You  must  strike  for 
souls;  and  if  you  do  not  succeed  (with 
the  sought  help  of  the  Holy  Spirit)  in 
moving  your  hearers  one  inch  toward  a 
better  life,  then  your  preaching  is  a  fail- 
ure. Results  are  what  you  are  after,  and 
they  will  never  be  secured  if  you  address 
your  auditors  in  a  cold,  or  careless,  or 
formal  and  perfunctory  manner. 

The  delivery  of  your  sermons,  my 
young  brother,  is  half  the  battle.  Why 
load  your  gun,  unless  you  can  send  your 
charge  to  the  mark  ?  Many  an  ordinary 
discourse  has  produced  an  extraordinary 
effect  by  an  intensely  earnest  delivery. 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  SERMOXS.  53 

It  is  equally  true  that  many  an  excellent 
discourse  has  failed  to  produce  any  im- 
pression on  account  of  the  dull  and 
monotonous  manner  of  the  speaker.  If 
you  do  not  warm  yourself  up,  you  may 
be  sure  that  you  will  never  warm  up 
your  congregation.  I  once  asked  Albert 
Barnes,  "Who  is  the  greatest  preacher 
you  have  ever  heard ! "  Mr.  Barnes,  who 
was  himself  a  very  calm,  clear-headed 
thinker,  replied,  "  I  cannot  answer  your 
question  exactly ;  but  I  can  tell  you  what 
was  the  grandest  specimen  of  preaching 
I  ever  heard ;  it  was  by  Edward  N.  Kirk, 
before  my  congregation  during  the  height 
of  a  revival.  It  produced  a  tremendous 
effect."  Dr.  Kirk  was  not  a  profound 
scholar  or  thinker;  but  he  was  a  born 
orator,  with  a  superb  voice  and  grace- 
ful manner  and  persuasive  tone,  and  his 
whole  soul  was  red-hot  with  a  holy  love 
of  Jesus  and  of  dying  souls.  About  the 
time  that  I  had  this  talk  with  Mr.  Barnes 


54  THE   YOUNG    PREACHES. 

I  was  in  Boston,  and  at  a  public  meeting 
there  I  heard  a  very  able  production  read 
in  a  lifeless  manner  before  a  listless  audi- 
ence. As  I  was  coming  out,  a  gentleman 
said  to  me,  "If  Edward  N.  Kirk  had 
had  hold  of  that  address,  he  would  have 
thrilled  everybody  in  the  house."  Cer- 
tainly, my  old  friend  Kirk  had  a  remark- 
able gift  of  saying  even  a  common  thing 
with  most  uncommon  power. 

You  may  call  this  "  magnetism"  if  you 
choose,  or  by  any  other  name;  but  I 
would  define  it  as  the  fire  in  your  own 
soul  that  not  only  kindles  your  tongue, 
but  also  kindles  the  hearts  before  you. 
Paul  must  have  had  this  when  he  ceased 
not  to  warn  the  Ephesians,  night  and  day, 
with  tears.  It  has  been  the  characteristic 
of  nearly  all  the  most  effective  preachers. 
Dr.  Chalmers  had  it ;  McCheyne  had  it ; 
Dr.  Guthrie  had  it  to  such  a  degree  that 
a  Highland  drover  standing  in  the  packed 
auditory  spoke  out  audibly,  "  And  did  ye 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  SERMONS.  55 

iver  hear  the  like  o'  that ! "  The  sermons 
of  Frederick  W.  Robertson,  of  Brighton, 
are  models  of  vigorous  thought  and  clear- 
cut  expression ;  yet  they  owed  much  of 
their  power  at  the  time  to  their  being 
delivered  "with  a  fiery  glow."  In  my 
own  humble  experience  I  have  seen  my 
congregation  much  moved  by  a  certain 
discourse,  and  spiritual  results  have  fol- 
lowed it.  At  another  time  and  place  the 
same  sermon  has  produced  no  impression, 
and  I  feel  quite  confident  that  the  differ- 
ence was  more  with  me  than  with  my 
hearers.  Physical  condition  may  have 
something  to  do  with  a  minister's  power 
in  delivery;  but  the  chief  element  in  "y\dt 
the  eloquence  that  awakens  and  converts  /a 
souls  is  the  unction  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Your  best  power,  my  brother,  is  power 
from  the  Holy  Ghost.  You  may  have 
that  if  you  empty  yourself  of  pride  and 
vainglory  and  foolish  fear  of  man,  and 
then  seek  the  inpouring  of  the  divine 


56  THE   YOUNG   PREACHER. 

Spirit  in  his  fullness.  Do  not  be  discour- 
aged if  your  voice  is  weak,  or  is  harsh 
and  unmusical;  do  not  trouble  yourself 
too  much  about  the  gracefulness  of  your 
gestures.  Dr.  Alexander  Duff's  eloquence 
swept  his  audience  like  a  hurricane,"but 
such  outlandish  contortions  of  gestures  as 
his,  I  never  witnessed  elsewhere.  Phys- 
ical defects  may  often  be  overcome  by  res- 
olute training,  as  Bishop  Phillips  Brooks 
overcame  them ;  and,  if  you  fall  into  un- 
couth and  disagreeable  habits  of  intona- 
tion or  gesticulation,  get  some  good  friend 
to  score  you  out  of  them.  You  never  will 
become  an  effective  preacher  if  you  are 
unwilling  to  accept  the  sharpest  criticisms 
kindly;  and  faithful  are  the  wounds  of 
a  wife,  if  she  sometimes  cuts  your  self- 
conceit  to  the  quick,  or  prunes  off  your 
bad  habits  without  mercy. 

During  my  three  years  in  Princeton 
Theological  Seminary  I  made  it  a  rule  to 
go  out  as  often  as  possible  and  address 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  SERMONS.  57 

little  meetings  in  the  neighboring  school- 
houses,  and  found  this  a  very  beneficial 
method  of  gaining  practice.  A  young 
preacher  must  get  accustomed  to  the 
sound  of  his  own  voice;  if  he  is  natu- 
rally timid  and  bashful,  he  must  learn  to 
face  an  audience.  He  must  first  learn 
to  speak  at  all;  afterward  he  may  learn 
to  speak  well.  "  I  spoke  every  evening 
but  one  during  my  first  session  of  Par- 
liament," said  Charles  James  Fox,  "  and 
I  am  only  sorry  that  I  did  "not  speak  on 
that  evening  also."  It  was  by  such  con- 
stant practicing  on  the  patience  of  his 
auditors  that  Fox  became  one  of  the  most 
splendid  masters  of  parliamentary  debate. 
It  is  a  happy  thing  for  a  young  minister 
to  begin  his  ministry  in  a  small  congre- 
gation. He  has  more  time  for  study ;  he 
has  a  better  chance  to  become  intimately 
acquainted  with  individual  characters, 
and  also  a  smaller  audience  to  face.  The 
first  congregation  that  I  was  called  to 


58  THE   YOUNG    PREACHER. 

serve  contained  about  forty  families; 
three  or  four  of  these  were  wealthy  and 
cultured,  and  the  rest  were  plain  mechan- 
ics, with  a  few  gardeners  and  coachmen. 
I  aimed  my  sermons  at  the  comprehen- 
sion of  the  gardeners  and  the  coachmen 
at  the  rear  of  the  house,  leaving  my  cul- 
tured parishioners  to  gather  what  they 
could  from  the  sermon  on  its  way.  One 
of  these  rich  folks  was  a  very  distin- 
guished lawyer.  After  I  had  delivered 
a  very  earnest  sermon  on  "  the  worth  of 
the  soul "  I  went  home  and  said  to  my- 
self, "  Lawyer  C must  have  thought 

that  was  a  camp-meeting  exhortation." 
He  met  me  during  the  week,  and  to  my 
astonishment  he  said  to  me,  "Young 
man,  I  thank  you  for  that  sermon  last 
Sunday ;  it  had  the  two  best  qualities  of 
preaching  —  simplicity  and  earnestness. 
If  I  had  a  student  in  my  office  who  was 
not  more  in  earnest  to  win  his  first  ten- 
dollar  suit  before  a  justice  of  the  peace 


THE  DELIVERY  OF  SERMONS.  59 

than  some  ministers  seem  to  be  in  trying 
to  save  souls,  I  would  kick  such  a  student 
out  of  my  office." 

That  lawyer's  remark  did  me  more  good 
than  any  month's  study  in  the  seminary. 
It  taught  me  that  the  cultured  relish  plain, 
simple  truth  as  much  as  do  the  ignorant, 
and  that  downright  earnestness  to  save 
souls  "  hides  a  multitude  of  sins "  in  us 
raw  young  preachers.  If  you  want  to 
be  a  natural  and  forceful  speaker,  do  not 
trammel  yourself  too  much  with  the  can- 
ons of  elocution.  Load  your  piece  with 
God's  truth,  take  good  aim,  and  then  fire 
away.  The  less  you  think  about  your- 
self while  in  the  pulpit,  the  better.  Leave 
your  own  self-consciousness  and  your 
own  reputation  down  under  the  pulpit 
stairs.  Look  at  your  auditors  as  immor- 
tal beings  bound  to  the  judgment-seat 
of  Christ,  and  remember  that  you  are  to 
meet  them  there,  and  to  render  your  ac- 
count for  discharging  your  duty  to  them. 


60  THE    TOVXG   PREACHER. 

Then  seek  the  power  from  on  high,  and 
preach  for  sonls  !  Preach  as  if  the  light 
of  eternity  flashed  into  your  face.  The 
more  soul  you  put  into  your  preaching, 
the  more  souls  you  will  bring  to  Jesus 
Christ. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
HEALTH  AND   HABITS. 


61 


M 


VI. 

HEALTH   AND   HABITS. 

ANY  people  have  the  very  foolish 
impression  that  the  life  of  a  minis- 
ter is  a  very  easy  one.  But  the  pastor  of 
a  large  parish,  who  devotes  himself  con- 
scientiously to  his  work,  needs  a  strong 
mind  in  a  strong  body.  Every  student 
for  the  ministry  should  use  abundant 
physical  exercise  during  his  preparatory 
training,  so  that  when  he  enters  upon  his 
labors  he  may  be  able  to  "  endure  hard- 
ness as  a  good  soldier,"  and  not  be  a 
candidate  for  the  hospital.  It  is  rarely 
a  wise  thing  to  have  a  first  settlement 
in  a  great  city.  A  small  parish  in  the 
rural  regions  is  the  best  place  in  which 
to   begin.      There   the   young  man   will 

63 


C4  TEE   TOUNO  riiEACEEE. 

have  undisturbed  opportunity  for  study- 
ing God's  Word,  and  human  nature,  too ; 
he  will  have  the  bracing  influence  of 
country  air,  and  of  long  walks  or  rides 
to  visit  his  flock.  Almost  all  the  great- 
est ministers  of  both  Britain  and  America 
have  served  their  apprenticeship  in  hum- 
ble parishes,  while  those  who  rush  pre- 
cipitately into  ambitious  settlements  com- 
monly break  down.  The  clock  that  is 
not  content  to  strike  one  will  never  strike 
twelve. 

Bodily  health,  my  young  brother,  is 
more  easily  kept  than  regained ;  and  Dr. 
Prevention  is  the  best  physician  that  you 
can  employ.  I  am  not  very  strong  phys- 
ically, but  I  have  taken  good  care  of  a 
good  constitution,  so  that,  during  an 
active  ministry  of  forty-seven  years,  I 
have  never  spent  an  entire  Sabbath  in 
bed.  On  three  or  four  occasions  I  have 
suffered  from  ailments  that  kept  me  from 
church,  but  did  not  put  me  on  my  back. 


HEALTH  AND  HABITS.  65 

The  best  parts  of  me  have  always  been 
my  lungs  and  my  legs;  they  are  really 
the  most  important  parts,  for  the  one 
does  the  preaching,  and  the  other  does 
the  pastoral  visiting.  As  to  the  voice,  I 
have  avoided  too  many  warm  wrappings 
about  the  throat,  have  applied  plenty  of 
cold  water  and  friction,  and  have  never 
been  addicted  to  troches  and  other  like 
trumpery.  Nor  is  it  a  good  practice  to 
drink  cold  water  very  often  while  speak- 
ing. 

Take  a  total-abstinence  pledge,  at  the 
very  start,  to  refrain  from  all  sorts  of" 
alcoholic  stimulants  and  all  sorts  of  in- 
digestible food.  A  minister  sometimes 
calls  in  as  an  ally  what  proves  to  be  a 
deadly  enemy.  Long  years  ago,  the  elo- 
quent Dr.  K fell  into  sad  inebriation 

from  having  used  port-wine  to  enable 
him,  as  he  honestly  said,  "  to  preach  with 
more  power."  He  repented  in  dust  and 
ashes,  and  spent  the  closing  years  of  his 


66  THE   YOUNG  PREACHER. 

godly  life  as  an  entire  abstainer.  One  of 
the  most  zealous  ministers  of  this  city 
probably  shortened  his  life  by  a  lamenta- 
ble slavery  to  strong  coffee  and  tobacco. 
Both  coffee  and  tea  are  harmless  luxuries 
to  most  of  us  when  used  in  moderation. 
Famous  old  Dr.  Emmons,  who  died  at 
ninety-five,  used  to  drink  his  coffee  "  one 
half  milk,  and  the  other  half  sugar  " ;  but 
when  I  saw  the  British  prime  minister, 
Lord  Beaconsfield,  trembling  like  an  aspen 
leaf,  I  was  not  surprised  that  his  wife 
said,  "My  husband  likes  his  coffee  as 
black  as  ink  and  as  hot  as  Tophet." 
God's  prohibitory  law  against  the  use  of 
exciting  stimulants  appears  in  that  they 
are  all  armed  with  a  whip  of  scorpions. 

My  chief  panacea  has  always  been 
sound,  healthful  sleep.  This  is  the  great 
secret  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  longevity  and 
marvelous  power  at  the  age  of  eighty- 
three.  He  once  told  me  that  he  managed 
to  lock  all  his  cares,  and  parliamentary 


HEALTH  AND   HABITS.  67 

debates,  and  perplexities  of  public  office, 
outside  of  his  bedchamber  door.  The 
men  who  live  the  longest,  and  do  the  most 
effective  work,  are  commonly  good  sleep- 
ers. If  they  cannot  secure  enough  sleep  at 
night,  they  make  it  up  by  a  short  nap  in 
the  middle  of  the  day.  When  a  man  who 
has  so  much  strain  on  his  brain  and  his 
nervous  sensibilities  as  a  pastor  has,  goes 
to  his  pillow,  he  should  school  himself  to 
the  habit  of  dismissing  all  thoughts  about 
outside  matters.  If  this  costs  him  some 
difficulty,  he  should  pray  for  divine  help 
to  do  it.  As  for  anodynes  to  quiet  down 
the  nervous  excitements  of  preaching,  or 
of  revival  meetings,  I  have  found  nothing 
so  wholesome  as  a  good  bowl  of  bread 
and  milk.  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  used  to 
accomplish  the  same  result  by  shoveling 
a  pile  of  gravel  to  and  fro  in  his  cellar, 
and  sometimes  by  dancing  to  the  music 
of  his  own  violin. 

Too  many  ministers  toil  at  their  ser- 


68  THE   YOUNG    PREACHER. 

nions  until  ten  or  eleven  o'clock,  and  then 
retire,  with  throbbing  nerves,  to  their 
sleepless  beds.  This  is  suicide.  The  man 
that  invented  "  midnight  oil "  deserves  a 
purgatory  of  everlasting  nightmare.  My 
own  rule  is  never  to  touch  a  sermon  by 
lamplight.  One  hour  in  the  morning  is 
worth  two  or  three  at  night.  Get  into 
your  study  every  morning — except  Mon- 
day— as  early  as  you  can,  and  then  to 
your  books  and  your  pen.  If  your  mind 
is  dull  and  inactive,  do  not  attempt  to 
force  it  into  the  preparation  of  a  sermon 
that  will  probably  put  your  congregation 
to  sleep.  Throw  down  your  pen ;  take  up 
a  book,  or  try  a  short  nap  or  a  short 
walk.  But  when  your  mind  is  especial- 
ly clear  and  alert,  then  bolt  your  study- 
door  against  all  intruders,  and  make  the 
very  most  of  such  precious  golden  hours. 
More  than  once  I  have  had  a  whole  ser- 
mon burst  on  me  at  a  single  sitting,  and 
I  did  not  stay  my  pen  until  every  nimble 


HEALTH  AND  HABITS.  69 

thought  was  captured  aud  securely  fast- 
ened to  paper.  " Redeeming  the  time" 
literally  signifies  "  buying  up  opportuni- 
ties " ;  and  when  these  favored  moments 
for  coining  thought  are  vouchsafed  to 
you,  let  no  thief  break  in  and  steal  the 
mintage. 

Do  not  be  surprised  that  I  exhort  you 
so  earnestly  to  the  care  of  your  bodily 
health  and  to  the  formation  of  good  men- 
tal habits.  They  are  both  of  vital  impor- 
tance for  your  usefulness.  Your  health 
affects  the  spirtual  health  of  your  flock. 
If  you  are  sleepless  during  the  week, 
you  will  become  enervated  and  irritable, 
and  will  put  your  congregation  to  sleep 
by  your  dull  sermons.  If  you  do  not  di- 
gest your  food,  you  will  be  very  likely  to 
torment  them  with  indigestible  preach- 
ments. As  soon  as  your  study  becomes 
so  excessive  as  to  fag  you  out,  then  shut 
up  your  books,  or  drop  your  pen,  and  be 
off  at  something  else.     It  is  the  work 


7i)  TEE    YOUNG   PREACHER. 

that  we  attempt  when  we  are  tired  that 
hurts  us;  yes,  and  hurts  those  that  are 
obliged  to  listen  to  us. 

Sometimes  you  will  be  tempted  to  re- 
peat a  former  discourse,  from  lack  of  time 
to  prepare  a  new  one.  If  you  do  this, 
see  to  it  that  the  discourse  is  improved 
on  its  second  delivery.  Cut  out  its  weak 
points ;  strengthen  it  with  fresh  thought ; 
and,  if  it  was  originally  delivered  on  a 
stormy  Sabbath,  it  will  be  well  to  give  it 
a  larger  audience  under  better  auspices. 
Do  not  be  afraid  to  repeat  a  thorough- 
ly good  thing.  Many  folks  have  short 
memories.  A  poor,  lean,  juiceless  ser- 
mon ought  never  to  be  preached  once; 
but  a  rich,  nutritious  discourse,  which 
God  has  already  blessed,  may  be  made 
still  more  forcible  on  a  second  or  third 
delivery.  Dr.  Edward  Dorr  Griffin  de- 
livered his  great  sermon  on  "  The  Worth 
of  the  Sonl"  ninety  times;  he  never 
wearied  of  it,  nor  did  those  who  had 


HEALTH  AND   HABITS.  71 

heard  it  more  than  once.  Fewer  ser- 
mons and  richer  ones  should  be  the  aim 
of  those  that  really  edify  Christ's  people 
and  win  souls  to  the  Saviour.  There  is 
an  increasing  fashion  of  advertising  the 
topics  of  discourse  in  the  newspapers. 
It  is  a  bad  fashion,  and  none  of  the  great 
preachers,  such  as  Guthrie,  McLaren,  Lid- 
don,  Newman  Hall  and  Spurgeon,  have 
practiced  it  abroad ;  and  very  few  of  our 
best  preachers  practice  it  in  our  country. 
There  are  more  objections  to  this  custom 
than  I  have  time  and  space  to  specify. 
The  best  topic  is  that  which  will  save  the 
most  souls ;  the  best  advertisement  is  the 
love  of  your  people  and  the  blessing  of 
God  upon  your  ministry. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
WINNING  SOULS. 


73 


VII. 

WINNING   SOULS. 

SOME  one  asked  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher, 
in  his  old  age,  "  What  is  the  greatest 
of  all  things!"  The  sturdy  veteran  re- 
plied, "  It  is  not  theology ;  it  is  not  con- 
troversy; it  is  saving  souls."  He  had 
been  the  king  of  the  American  pulpit; 
but,  as  he  looked  back  over  his  noble 
career,  he  felt  that  the  greatest  good  that 
he  had  accomplished  was  in  leading  guilty 
and  polluted  souls  to  their  only  Saviour. 
David  Brainerd,  one  of  the  most  cele- 
brated of  our  missionaries,  while  he  was 
laboring  among  the  poor,  benighted  In- 
dians on  the  banks  of  the  Delaware,  once 
said,  "  I  care  not  where  I  live,  or  what 
hardships  I  go  through,  so  that  I  can  but 

75 


76  THE   YOUXG   PEE  AC  HER. 

gain  souls  to  Christ.  While  I  am  asleep, 
I  dream  of  these  things;  as  soon  as  I 
awake,  the  first  thing  I  think  of  is  this 
great  work.  All  my  desire  is  the  con- 
version of  sinners,  and  all  my  hope  is  in 
God."  Our  blessed  Master  came  into  our 
sin-cursed  world  to  seek  and  to  save  the 
lost.  To  convert  men  to  Jesus  Christ  by 
the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  the  master- 
purpose  of  Paul  and  his  fellow-apostles. 
The  great  Reformation,  under  the  lead 
of  Luther  and  Calvin  and  Knox,  was  far 
more  than  a  protestation  against  Popish 
errors;  it  was  a  direct  bringing  of  be- 
nighted souls  to  the  cross  for  salvation. 
Whiten1  eld  and  the  Wesley s  made  this 
their  chief  business.  The  most  successful 
preacher  of  modern  times  was  Spurgeon ; 
and  he  once  asked  me  the  question,  "  How 
far  do  your  ablest  American  ministers 
aim  mainly  at  the  conversion  of  souls  ? " 
The  question  that  my  beloved  British 
brother  asked  me  I  would  propound  to 


WINNING   SOULS.  77 

every  young  preacher  that  reads  these 
lines.  No  minister  is  likely  to  succeed  in 
anything  that  he  undertakes  with  only 
half  a  heart;  he  can  never  do  what  he 
does  not  even  attempt  to  do.  If  your 
whole  heart  is  not  bent  on  the  glorious 
work  of  converting  sinners,  by  the  help  of 
God,  you  will  never  accomplish  it.  You 
may  produce  much  valuable  and  elevat- 
ing thought ;  you  may  argue  ingeniously 
against  current  skepticism ;  you  may  un- 
fold sound  principles  of  morality;  you 
may  say  many  eloquent  things  about 
"  developing  humanity,"  and  in  behalf  of 
benevolent  reform ;  but  if  you  stop  short 
of  leading  immortal  souls  to  Jesus  Christ, 
then  your  ministry  will  be,  at  the  most 
vital  point,  a  failure.  Nor  is  it  a  vague 
idea  about  "  reaching  the  masses,"  or  sav- 
ing people  in  the  general,  that  must  in- 
spire you.  Men  are  saved  or  lost  indi- 
vidually. The  Bible  declares  that  "he 
which  converteth  a  sinner  from  the  error 


78  THE   YOUNG    PREACHER. 

of  his  way  shall  save  a  soul  from  death, 
and  shall  cover  a  multitude  of  sins."  A 
single  soul  was  a  sufficient  audience  for 
the  Son  of  God  at  the  well  of  Syehar  and 
in  the  inquiry- room  of  Nicodemus. 

1.  Aim  then,  my  brother,  to  make  your 
preaching  direct,  pointed,  individualiz- 
ing. Let  every  unconverted  person  in 
the  house  be  made  to  feel,  "  That  means 
me."  Not  every  sermon  is  to  be  addressed 
to  the  impenitent,  by  any  means;  but 
when  you  are  presenting  Christ,  present 
him  as  each  man's  Saviour;  and  when 
you  discuss  the  guilt  and  danger  of  sin, 
bring  it  home  to  each  individual  sinner. 
"  Thou  art  the  man,"  sent  Nathan's  para- 
ble into  David's  heart  like  an  arrow.  Do 
not  be  afraid  of  any  sinner  in  the  house ; 
and  pray  God  to  help  you  love  every  sin- 
ner before  you  so  fervently  that  you  will 
tell  him  plainly  that  if  he  does  not  repent 
and  accept  Christ,  he  will  be  lost  forever. 
Do  not  be  afraid  of  the  word  "  hell "  any 


1VIXXIXG   SOULS.  79 

more  than  of  the  word  "  heaven."  Oh ! 
it  is  sheer  cruelty  to  conceal  from  your 
hearers  that  the  wages  of  sin  is  death.  If 
you  are  faithless  and  cowardly,  the  blood 
of  souls  will  be  found  in  }Tour  skirts. 
Preach,  therefore,  plainly,  lovingly,  and 
pungently  the  guilt  of  sin  and  the  doom 
of  sin,  and  pray  that  every  impenitent 
soul  before  you  may  be  convicted  by  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Aim  to  reveal  to  every  sin- 
ner his  or  her  own  personal  guilt  before 
God,  for  nobody  is  likely  to  flee  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  until  he  or  she  feels 
the  need  of  him.  Deep  convictions  of  sin 
generally  produce  deep  conversions ;  shal- 
low convictions  produce  shallow  Chris- 
tians. Put  in  the  plowshare  of  divine 
truth,  and  then  bear  down  on  the  beam ; 
if  it  reaches  to  the  roots  of  sin,  and  tears 
them  up,  all  the  better.  When  you  have 
made  a  sinner  see  himself,  then  try. to 
make  him  see  his  Saviour.  Then  point 
him  to  the  all-sufficient  Eedeemer,  whose 


80  THE    YOUNG   PREACHER. 

atoning  blood  cleanseth  from  all  sin. 
That  is  the  way  in  which  Peter  preached 
at  the  time  of  Pentecost,  when  three  thou- 
sand souls  were  convicted  and  converted 
in  a  single  day.  When  you  are  preach- 
ing repentance  to  the  sinner,  you  cannot 
deal  too  faithfully  and  pungently ;  when 
you  are  offering  salvation  to  the  sinner 
through  Jesus,  you  cannot  be  too  win- 
some and  loving  in  your  beseechings. 

2.  Only  a  part  of  your  work  in  soul- 
winning  is  likely  to  be  done  in  your 
pulpit.  The  most  important  part  will 
be  done  when  you  are  brought  face  to 
face  with  an  awakened  person.  Be  on 
the  lookout  for  such  persons  constantly. 
During  your  pastoral  visits  you  will  en- 
counter those  that  are  inquirers,  and  you 
should  rejoice  to  converse  with  them  im- 
mediately. By  the  way,  when  I  discov- 
ered several  such  cases  during  my  calls 
in  one  afternoon  (in  1856)  I  hailed  this 
fact  as  a  token  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  pres- 


wixxixa  SOULS.  81 

ence;  and  I*  summoned  my  church-offi- 
cers, and  appointed  special  services  every 
evening,  which  services  resulted  in  a  large 
number  of  conversions.  Always  be  on 
the  watch  for  the  presence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Listen  for  the  first  drops  of 
heavenly  blessings;  then  gird  yourself 
for  the  happy  work.  In  dealing  with 
an  awakened  soul,  your  prime  duty  is 
to  cooperate  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
therefore  you  must  pray  fervently  for  his 
guidance.  Endeavor  to  ascertain  just 
what  it  is  that  is  in  the  way  of  the  in- 
quirer, and  what  it  is  that  keeps  him 
from  surrendering  to  Christ.  If  it  be 
some  bad  habit  or  evil  practice,  then  that 
evil  practice  must  be  abandoned.  If  it 
be  some  sin,  cherished  in  the  heart,  then 
he  must  yield,  even  if  it  be*  like  pluck- 
ing out  a  right  eye  or  cutting  off  a  right 
hand.  In  most  cases  the  chief  hindrance 
lies  in  a  wicked,  stubborn  heart.  It  has 
always  been  my  aim  to  convince  awak- 


82  THE   TOUXG   PREACHER. 

ened  persons  that,  unless  they  were  will- 
ing to  give  their  hearts  to  Jesus  and  to 
"  do  the  will "  of  Jesus,  there  was  no  hope 
for  them.  We  must  shut  the  inquiring 
soul  up  to  Christ.  The  experiences  of 
inquirers  may  differ  as  much  as  their 
countenances;  "but  in  two  vital  partic- 
ulars all  cases  are  to  be  treated  alike. 
Every  sinner  must  cut  loose  from  his 
sins,  and  must  cleave  to  the  Lord  Jesus. 
Saving  faith  is  vastly  more  than  an  opin- 
ion or  a  feeling ;  it  is  an  act  of  the  soul. 
It  is  the  act  of  joining  our  weakness  to 
Christ's  strength,  our  ignorance  to  his 
knowledge,  our  guiltiness  to  his  atoning 
love,  our  wills  to  his  will,  ourselves  to 
him.  No  one  is  soundly  converted,  and 
no  one  should  join  the  church,  until  he 
has  joined  himself  to  Jesus  Christ.  This 
is  the  one  infallible  test.  It  is  not  enough 
to  "  feel  happy  " ;  it  is  not  enough  to  say, 
"  I  am  trying  to  be  a  Christian  " ;  no  soul 
is  safe  until  it  has  surrendered  uncondi- 


WINNING  SOULS.  8  3 

tionally  to  Christ,  and  has  been  "born 
anew  "  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  Do  not "  count 
noses"  too  hastily,  and  do  not  be  so 
ambitious  to  swell  the  numbers  of  your 
church  that  you  will  rush  the  uncon- 
verted or  the  half-converted  into  it.  It 
will  be  your  folly,  and  may  be  their  ruin. 
3.  In  addition  to  your  conversations 
with  such  awakened  persons  as  you  may 
encounter  in  their  homes,  or  such  as  may 
call  on  you  for  conversation,  it  will  often 
be  wise  to  appoint  inquiry-meetings.  Do 
this  when  you  discover  a  need  for  such 
meetings,  and  not  as  a  mere  empty  form. 
Some  zealous  ministers  insist  that  such 
a  meeting  should  be  appointed  after  every 
preaching-service ;  but  suppose  there  are 
no  inquirers  to  meet ;  then  the  very  word 
becomes  a  solemn  farce  or  failure.  When 
there  are  inquiring  souls,  and  they  are 
gathered  for  instruction  and  guidance, 
then  be  exceedingly  careful  as  to  whom 
you  allow  to  go  in  with  you.     Surely  you 


84  THE    YOUNG   PREACHER. 

would  not  call  in  the  first  person  that 
happened  to  go  by  your  door  to  treat 
one  of  your  family  that  was  dangerously 
sick.  Be  equally  careful  not  to  allow 
rash  and  inexperienced  persons,  or  pious 
"  cranks,"  to  meddle  with"  immortal  souls 
that  are  settling  the  stupendous  question 
of  their  own  salvation.  If  you  require 
help,  invite  only  the  men  and  women 
possessing  both  grace  and  good  com- 
mon sense.  Converse  with  each  inquirer 
as  closely  as  possible,  and  as  concisely. 
Bring  each  to  the  point  at  once.  Have 
God's  Word  in  your  hand  as  well  as  in 
your  memory,  and  be  ready  to  use  the 
right  passages  for  the  right  case.  With 
the  infallible  Word  to  give  'you  light, 
call  upon  the  Holy  Spirit  to  apply  his 
almighty  power  and  loving  work  to  the 
souls  before  you.  Encourage  the  inquir- 
ers to  pray  themselves.  Try  to  keep 
every  eye  fixed  on  Christ;  urge  imme- 
diate surrender  to  Christ.     Do  not  be- 


WINNING  SOULS.  85 

grudge  the  time  or  labor  required  to  help 
a  halting  or  perplexed  soul.  Hand-picked 
apples  keep  the  longest.  Individual  labor 
with  each  inquirer  is  indispensable.  The 
happiest  hours  you  will  spend  in  this 
world,  my  young  brother,  will  be  those 
that  you  spend  in  leading  sinners  to 
the  Saviour.  "  He  that  is  wise  winneth 
souls."  To  you,  if  you  are  thus  wise, 
will  belong  the  crown  that  shineth  as  the 
stars. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
HOW  TO  HAVE  A  WORKING  CHURCH, 


87 


VIII. 

HOW  TO   HAVE  A  WOKKING  CHUKCH. 

YOUR  success  will  depend,  under  God, 
not  only  upon  your  own  devotion 
and  diligence,  but  also  upon  the  thor- 
ough cooperation  of  your  people.  You 
are  not  only  a  shepherd  of  souls,  but  the 
commander  of  a  regiment  in  Christ's  sac- 
ramental host.  It  is  not  every  godly  min- 
ister that  has  the  gift  of  executive  ability. 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  with  all  his  splen- 
did genius  and  eloquence,  had  but  small 
executive  faculty.  Mr.  Spurgeon,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  so  masterly  an  organizer 
that  if  he  had  taken  to  politics  he  might 
have  been  a  great  parliamentary  leader, 
or  perhaps  the  prime-minister  of  the 
realm.    Dr.  James  W.  Alexander  once 

89 


90  THE    YOUNG    PREACHER. 

said  to  me,  "  There  is  no  pastor  in  New 
York  whom  I  envy  more  than  Dr.  Asa 
D.  Smith  [afterward  the  president  of 
Dartmouth  College],  for  he  has  the  knack 
of  keeping  all  his  people  at  work." 

It  is  indeed  a  peculiar  "  knack  "  of  many 
ministers;  and,  if  you  do  not  possess  it 
naturally,  you  must  do  your  utmost  to 
acquire  it  in  as  large  a  degree  as  possible. 
Common  sense  and  godly  zeal  are  indis- 
pensable to  every  minister ;  if  you  do  not 
possess  these,  God  has  never  called  you 
to  the  ministry.  If  you  do  possess  them, 
then  apply  them  to  the  task  of  develop- 
ing and  guiding  the  spiritual  activities  of 
your  flock.  Be  an  untiring  worker  your- 
self. A  lazy  pastor  makes  a  lazy  church. 
Emphasize  from  your  pulpit,  again  and 
again,  the  duty  and  the  joy  of  labor  for 
Christ,  and  exhort  every  member  of  your 
church  to  find  his  or  her  place  of  useful- 
ness— the  place  for  which  God  created 
him  and  the  Holy  Spirit  converted  him. 


HOW  TO  HAVE  A    WORKING   CHURCH.     91 

Too.  large  a  proportion,  in  nearly  all  our 
churches,  count  for  very  little  except 
upon  the  muster-roll ;  and,  when  that  roll 
is  called  for  duty,  they  seldom  answer 
"Here."  A  large  portion  of  the  power 
in  the  church,  therefore,  becomes  latent ; 
the  stream  is  diverted  upon  the  water- 
wheels  of  wordliness,  or  else  runs  to  waste 
entirely.  One  reason  is  that  young  con- 
verts are  not  trained  into  Christian  ac- 
tivity from  the  start.  Another  is  that 
when  new  members  unite  with  the  church 
they  are  not  set  to  work ;  and  so  they  drift 
away  into  idleness,  and  become  "  dead- 
heads "  in  the  church. 

Of  course  you  will  organize  a  society 
of  Christian  Endeavor  in  your  congrega- 
tion, if  there  be  none  already  in  existence. 
No  church  in  these  days  is  complete  with- 
out a  thorough  organization  of  its  young 
people  for  spiritual  labor  and  spiritual 
growth.  As  a  training-school  for  young 
converts   it   is   as  indispensable  to  the 


92  THE   YOUNG   PREACHER. 

church  as  the  Sunday-school;  it  molds 
the  youth  into  a  household,  and  into  a 
homelike  relation  with  the  church;  it 
supplies  a  social  necessity,  and  keeps  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  Christ's  family  out 
of  the  clutches  of  the  devil.  The  danger 
with  all  associations  of  young  people  is 
that  the  social  element  may  crowd  out 
the  spiritual  element,  and  so  cause  a 
Christian  organization  to  degenerate  into 
a  semi-convivial  club,  bent  on  amuse- 
ments. There  is  a  place  for  innocent, 
healthful  entertainments,  such  as  musi- 
cal concerts,  readings,  sociables,  instruc- 
tive exhibitions,  etc. ;  but  as  soon  as  the 
"daughter  of  Herodias"  gets  into  the 
association,  and  your  young  people  try 
to  make  a  frolic  of  their  religion,  then 
use  your  veto  summarily.  No  society  of 
Christian  Endeavor  and  no  association  of 
young  Christians  is  likely  to  lose  its  in- 
terest or  to  languish,  so  long  as  the  hearts 
of  the -members  are  full  of  Christ,  and  their 


HOW  TO   HAVE  A    WORKING    CHURCH.     93 

hands  are  full  of  doing  good.  But,  when 
Satan  "  side-tracks  "  them  into  mere  mirth 
and  merriment,  they  soon  go  over  the 
embankment,  and  end  in  a  smash-up. 
There  is  always  enough  of  innocent  rec- 
reation and  wholesome  happiness  to  be 
found  on  Christ's  side  of  the  dividing 
line,  without  going  over  to  the  world's 
side ;  nor  can  we  ever  convert  the  world 
to  Christ  by  conforming  to  its  follies,  its 
fashions,  or  its  frolics. 

In  every  society  of  Christian  Endeavor 
there  ought  to  be  a  temperance  commit- 
tee. The  decanter  and  the  dramshop 
are  chronic  curses  in  every  community, 
which  your  pulpit  and  your  church  have 
no  right  to  ignore.  The  title  to  member- 
ship in  a  temperance  society  should  be 
the  pledged  practice  of  entire  abstinence 
from  all  intoxicating  beverages ;  the  con- 
stitution and  by-laws  should  be  brief; 
the  public  meetings  should  be  free  to 
everybody,   and  a  collection   should  be 


94  THE   TOUXG   PEE  ACHE  11. 

taken  up  to  meet  current  expenses.  I 
found  such  an  organization  in  my  church* 
to  be  a  source  of  manifold  blessings  to 
our  own  members  and  to  tlie  surround- 
ing community. 

Your  prayer-meetings  will  be  the  spir- 
itual thermometer  of  your  church.  A 
prayer-meeting  below  freezing-point  indi- 
cates a  cold  church ;  it  is  both  a  cause  and 
an  effect  of  serious  spiritual  declension. 
When  a  revival  comes,  it  commonly  begins 
right  there.  Whatever  else  you  neglect, 
never  neglect  your  prayer-meetings,  and 
never  allow  anything  else  to  crowd  them 
out.  Always  attend  them  yourself,  but 
never  take  charge  of  them  so  long  as  any 
church-officer  or  gifted  member  can  be 
found  to  conduct  them.  If  you  lead  them, 
there  is  a  danger  that  you  will  be  tempted 
to  monopolize  them.  A  certain  eminent 
minister  complained  that  his  people  did 
not  take  part  in  the  devotional  gatherings, 
and  the  reason  was  that  he  absorbed  most 


HOW  TO  HAVE  A    WORKING    CHURCH.     95 

of  the  time  by  his  own  addresses.  The 
main  purpose  of  a  prayer-meeting  is  not 
a  sermon  ette  by  the  pastor ;  it  is  the  de- 
velopment of  the  church-members  in  their 
spiritual  life,  the  worship  of  God  in  fer- 
vent prayers,  songs  of  praise,  and  the 
stirring  up  of  one  another's  hearts  in  ex- 
perimental talks  and  warm  exhortations. 
The  more  like  a  family  gathering  it  is, 
the  better.  Have  your  church-officers 
conduct  it,  in  alphabetical  order.  It  is  a 
good  practice  to  select  some  Bible  passage 
or  practical  topic  beforehand,  and  to  have 
that  announced  from  the  pulpit  on  the 
previous  Sabbath.  Exhort  the  leader  to 
come  well  prepared,  and  then  leave  the 
helm  in  his  hands.  If  the  meeting  drags, 
be  ready  to  give  a  timely  lift;  and  you 
will  seldom  allow  the  service  to  close 
without  some  words  of  earnest  exhorta- 
tion or  of  prayer.  Unless  you  are  won- 
derfully fortunate,  you  may  be  troubled 
by  some  officious  and  indiscreet  brethren 


96  THE   TOUXG   PREACHER. 

that  persist  in  flying"  like  moths  into  the 
candle.  It  is  your  duty  to  deal  with  such 
offenders  lovingly  and  kindly.  If  they 
are  genuine  Christians,  they  will  thank 
you  for  setting  them  right,  and  so  will 
the  rest  of  your  people.  If  they  are  only 
noisy,  or  self-conceited  self-seekers,  then 
they  ought  to  be  abated  as  nuisances. 

In  dealing  with  the  varieties  of  people 
in  your  charge,  and  in  developing  their 
activities,  you  will  need  to  use  a  holy  tact. 
Study  the  characters  of  your  members. 
Put  to  the  front  the  wisest,  and  gently 
repress  the  blunderers.  Some  good  peo- 
ple will  do  good  service  if  they  are  only 
consulted ;  to  such  it  will  be  wise  to  say, 
"Brother  A,  don't  you  think  it  would 
be  well  for  us  to  do  this  or  that?"  Tlie 
brother  will  then  imagine  that  he  is  hav- 
ing his  own  way,  when  he  is  really  going 
your  way.  There  is  a  vast  deal  of  human 
nature  in  the  godliest  men  and  women  in 
our  flocks.  Never  wound  a  true  disciple 
of  Christ ;  never  discourage  any  one  that 


HOW  TO   HAVE  A    WOE  KING    CHURCH.     97 

longs  and  tries  to  be  useful;  and  never 
do  anybody's  work  so  long  as  lie  or  she 
can  be  got  to  do  it.  You  will  have 
enough  work  of  your  own. 

Finally,  let  me  exhort  you  to  drive 
every  wheel  in  your  machinery  to  its  ut- 
most ;  but  do  not  have  more  wheels  than 
power.  Enlarge  your  work  as  fast  and 
as  far  as  you  have  men  and  money  to 
propel  it.  Keep  clear  of  hobbies  and  all 
sorts  of  sensational  devices.  Feed  your 
flock  with  strong,  solid,  gospel  food,  if 
you  want  them  to  be  strong  for  work, 
and  then  arouse  their  enthusiasm  by  your 
own  example  and  by  leading  them  to  seek 
the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Come 
to  them  on  Sunday  with  Christ  on  your 
lips,  and  go  among  them  all  the  week 
with  Christ  in  your  heart  and  life.  The 
only  power  that  can  drive  any  church  is 
the  Power  from  on  high ;  and  that  church 
which  is  mighty  in  prayer  will  always  be 
mighty  in  work.  Heaven's  holy  activi- 
ties will  be  its  sweetest  rest. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE. 


99 


IX. 

THE  MAN   BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE. 

THE  ambassador  of  the  United  States 
to  a  foreign  court  is  both  accorded 
certain  honors  and  exposed  to  critical 
observation,  because  he  represents  the 
great  republic.  Remember  always,  my 
young  brother,  that  you  are  the  ambas- 
sador of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  bearer 
of  the  gospel  message  from  the  court  of 
heaven ;  therefore  be  very  watchful  of 
the  man  that  bears  the  message.  Look 
well  after  the  man  that  walks  in  your 
shoes.  People  have  a  right  to  expect 
more  than  ordinary  piety  in  a  minister, 
because  he  is  a  representative  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  has  promised  to  be  an  "en- 
sample  to  the  flock."    You  have  no  right 

101 


102  THE   YOUNG   PREACHER. 

to  be  a  minister  if  you  are  not  willing 
to  be  closely  watched  and  keenly  scruti- 
nized ;  you  ought  to  have  taken  account 
of  this  when  you  voluntarily  assumed  so 
high  and  holy  an  office.  Do  not  shirk 
the  "fierce  light "  that  may  be  expected 
to  beat  upon  your  pulpit  and  your  pas- 
torate, and,  above  all,  on  your  own  per- 
sonality. A  torch-bearer  must  not  expect 
to  be  hidden;  the  light  that  he  carries 
will  reveal  to  others  what  manner  of  man 
he  is. 

The  great  object  of  preaching  the  gos- 
pel is  to  form  godly  character,  and  there- 
fore the  preacher  himself  should  strive  to 
exhibit  a  character  of  the  highest  possi- 
ble type.  We  whose  business  it  is  to  set 
forth  Christianity  must  not  forget  that 
people  look  at  us  when  outside  of  our 
pulpits,  to  discover  what  we  mean  when 
in  our  pulpits.  If  your  conduct  before 
the  community  contradicts  your  utter- 
ances of  God's  truth  on  God's  day,  then 


THE    MAX  BEHIND   THE  .MESSAGE.       103 

your  tongue,  if  it  had  the  charm  of  Chrys- 
ostom's,  would  be  but  a  tinkling  cymbal. 
A  parishioner  once  remarked,  "My  pas- 
tor's discourses  are  not  brilliant,  but  his 
daily  life  is  a  sermon  all  the  week."  Paul 
stood  behind  all  his  inspired  utterances ; 
the  "  living  epistle  w  was  as  eloquent  and 
convincing  as  any  words  he  ever  sent  to 
Corinth,  or  ever  pronounced  on  the  hill 
of  Mars.  A  large  part  of  the  power  of 
the  best  ministers  lies  in  their  own  per- 
sonality. -Phillips  Brooks  was  generally 
accounted  the  foremost  American  clergy- 
man of  these  days;  his  discourses  were 
fresh,  chaste,  vigorous,  often  brilliant; 
and,  being  constructed  largely  out  of  his 
own  spiritual  experience,  were  adapted  to 
the  experiences  of  his  hearers;  but  the 
magnificent  manhood  of  Phillips  Brooks 
towered  above  his  grandest  discourses. 
It  was  equally  true  of  Spurgeon,  the 
most  popular  preacher  of  modern  times. 
Behind  all  his  thousands  of  fervid  gospel 


104  THE   YOUNG   PREACHER. 

messages  stood  Spurgeon,  the  fearless, 
faithful,  genial,  warm-hearted  man  of 
God,  whom  Protestants  and  Roman  Cath- 
olics, Jews  and  Quakers,  alike  revered 
and  loved.  They  did  this,  too,  in  spite 
of  all  the  sharp  points  of  his  Calvinistic 
doctrines.  He  never  trimmed  his  sails  to 
catch  popular  favor,  and  the  world  liked 
him  all  the  better  for  that.  Time-servers 
are  always  despised.  If  you  want  to 
catch  and  to  keep  the  popular  ear,  have 
the  courage  of  your  convictions.  Never 
be  afraid  of  your  own  congregation,  or 
of  any  one  else  but  God.  Yet  plain,  fear- 
less speaking  should  never  degenerate 
into  the  bluster  of  a  bully,  or  the  exas- 
perations of  a  common  scold.  Richard 
Cecil,  of  London,  once  said  that  too  many 
ministers  go  to  the  opposite  extreme. 
"  They  are  all  milk  and  mildness.  They 
touch  all  sin  with  so  much  tenderness! 
and  if  the  patient  shrinks,  they  will 
touch  no  more.      The  gospel  is  some- 


THE  MAX  BEHIXD   THE  MESSAGE.       105 

times  preached  in  this  way  till  all  the 
people  agree  with  the  preacher ;  he  gives 
no  offense,  and  he  does  no  good." 

If  compromising  God's  trnth  in  the 
pnlpit  is  mischievous,  so  is  compromis- 
ing in  your  practice  during  the  week.  I 
have  a  pretty  strong  conviction  that  the 
reaction  that  has  set  in  during  these  later 
years  is  not  a  wholesome  one.  Ministers 
in  former  times  may  have  gone  to  an  ex- 
treme in  punctiliousness  of  clerical  dress 
and  in  austerity  of  manners.  Now  the 
danger  is  in  the  opposite  direction;  and 
too  many  ministers  try  to  be  like  every- 
body else,  both  in  their  costume  and  their 
customs.  For  fear  of  being  thought  puri- 
tanical they  become  frivolous.  In  order 
to  win  favor  with  the  world  they  fall  too 
much  into  the  ways  of  the  world,  forget- 
ting that  when  they  try  to  conform  their 
Christianity  to  the  world  they  will  never 
be  able  to  conform  the  world  to  Chris- 
tianity.    The  standard  is  being  lowered, 


106  THE   YOUNG   PREACHER. 

both  in  doctrine  and  in  practice.  The 
dividing  line  between  the  church  and 
the  world  is  becoming  more  indistinct; 
as  to  some  things,  it  is  almost  obliter- 
ated. For  example,  a  larger  proportion 
of  church-members  attend  the  theater 
than  attended  forty  years  ago,  not  be- 
cause the  morals  of  the  average  stage 
have  been  elevated,  but  because  the  mor- 
al standard  of  too  many  professing  Chris- 
tians has  been  lowered.  Set  your  face 
like  a  flint  against  all  impure  and  un- 
wholesome amusements.  There  are  cer- 
tainly enough  pure  and  innocent  rec- 
reations to  be  found  without  resorting 
to  the  gilded  nastiness  of  the  average 
playhouse,  or  the  sensualities  of  the  ball- 
room. Never  go  where  your  Master 
would  not  go.  Never  be  found  where 
any  one,  especially  one  of  your  own 
church,  will  be  likely  to  say,  "  I  did  not 
expect  to  see  you  here."  Keep  on  Christ's 
side  of  the  dividing  line ;  and,  where  you 


THE  MAX.  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE.       107 

are  in  doubt,  give  Christ  and  conscience 
the  casting  vote.  There  are  several  things 
that  are  not  sinful  per  se,  but  which  it 
would  be  improper  for  a  Christian  min- 
ister to  do.  God's  Word  may  not  pro- 
nounce it  a  sin  to  touch  a  glass  of  wine ; 
nevertheless,  under  the  sanction  of  Paul's 
precept  to  practice  self-denial  for  the  sake 
of  others,  you  ought  to  let  the  wine-glass 
severely  alone.  Secret  drinking  is  dan- 
gerous to  yourself;  public  drinking  is 
dangerous  to  other  people.  Entire  ab- 
stinence is  the  only  safe  course.  There 
may  be  no  direct  prohibition  in  the  Bible 
of  certain  games  of  chance ;  yet  a  min- 
ister should  never  be  seen  with  a  pack  of 
cards  in  his  hands.  "Keep  thyself  pure ;  " 
"let  no  man  despise  thee."  Never  in- 
dulge in  any  practices  that  will  require 
you  to  make  explanations  or  apologies. 
Be  rigidly  careful  in  your  pecuniary 
transactions;  and,  however  small  your 
salary  may  be,  let  me  exhort  you  to  bear 


108  THE    YOUNG   PKEACHEK. 

any  privation  sooner  than  incur  the  ter- 
rible bondage  of  debt.  This  has  eaten 
like  a  cancer  into  more  than  one  minis- 
ter's health  and  happiness.  Sterling  hon- 
esty, scrupulous  truthfulness,  rigid  self- 
denial,  cheerful  sobriety  (that  is  not  afraid 
to  laugh  when  laughter  is  in  order),  gen- 
erous treatment  of  all  your  brethren,  and 
sympathy  with  the  sorrowing,  the  sob- 
bing, and  the  suffering  around  you — all 
these  virtues  will  tell  upon  your  influence, 
and  will  give  a  prodigious  power  to  your 
ministry. 

If  in  your  case  the  man  is  to  be  at  all 
like  his  divine  message,  then  you  must 
keep  your  heart  with  all  diligence ;  for 
your  outward  life  before  the  world  will 
be  measured  by  your  inward  life  with  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  water  in  a  pub- 
lic fountain  never  rises  one  inch  higher 
than  its  birthplace  upon  the  mountain- 
side. The  greater  your  piety,  the  greater 
your  power.     Genius,   scholarship,   elo- 


THE  MAX  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE.       109 

quence,  are  no  substitutes  for  whole- 
souled  love  of  Christ  and  holiness  of  life. 
If  you  do  not  love  your  Master  intensely, 
you  will  soon  get  weary  of  your  work; 
if  you  do  not  love  your  people  unselfishly 
and  devotedly,  they  will  soon  get  weary 
of  you.  The  deeper  you  root  down  into 
Christ's  heart  and  your  people's  hearts, 
the  larger  and  the  longer  will  be  your 
pastorate. 

That  prince  of  modern  evangelists, 
Charles  Gr.  Finney,  used  to  have  sea- 
sons when  he  felt  shorn  of  his  spiritual 
strength.  Then  he  shut  himself  up  with 
God,  went  down  on  his  knees,  and,  empty- 
ing himself  of  all  self-seekings  and  self- 
reliance,  he  fervently  prayed  to  be  filled 
with  the  Holy  Spirit.  Then  he  went  to 
his  pulpit  like  a  giant.  The  last  hour 
that  I  spent  with  my  beloved  friend 
Spurgeon  was  spent  at  family  worship. 
After  I  had  concluded  my  prayer,  he 
chimed  in  with  a  most  wonderfully  sim- 


110  THE    TOUXG   PREACHER. 

pie,  fervent,  artless  converse  with  Goti; 
it  was  like  the  reverent  talk  of  a  child 
with  the  best  of  fathers.  After  I  heard 
that  marvelous  prayer  I  said  to  myself, 
"  Now  I  know  the  secret  hiding-place  of 
Spurgeon's  power."  My  brother,  if  you 
cannot  pray,  you  cannot  preach. 

With  these  few  frank  and  fatherly 
counsels  I  bid  you  Godspeed  in  your 
work — a  work  so  glorious  that  an  arch- 
angel might  covet  it,  and  yet  it  is  in- 
trusted to  "earthen  vessels."  Preach 
the  Word.  Feed  the  flock.  Win  souls. 
An  ordinary  man  may  become  extraor- 
dinary when  the  Spirit  of  the  Almighty 
Son  of  God  dwelleth  in  him.  Carry 
the  sacred  fire  in  your  bones,  as  old 
John  Bunyan  did  when  he  warned  his 
hearers  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come, 
and  to  set  their  faces  toward  the  Celes- 
tial City.  Keep  eternity  in  view.  Let 
the  light  of  the  "great  white  throne" 
fall  on  your  page  when  you  study,  and 


THE  MAX  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE.       Ill 

on  your  pulpit  when  you  preach.  You 
are  a  watchman  who  must  give  account 
for  souls  in  the  great  day  of  judgment. 
There  is  no  higher  throne  for  any  saint 
in  heaven,  and  no  more  radiant  crown, 
than  is  reserved  for  the  faithful,  fearless, 
unselfish,  holy-hearted  minister  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  shall  reign  with 
his  Lord  and  King ;  he  shall  shine  as  the 
stars  for  ever  and  ever. 


A  SELECTION   FROM 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company's 

CATALOGUE 


MATTHEW    HENRY'S 

COMMENTARY. 


It  is  surprising  that  in  this  labor-saving  and  time-saving  age  the 
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"  To  how  many  a  hard-working  minister  has  this  book  been  a 
mine  of  gold.  Next  to  wife  and  children  have  lain  near  his  heart 
the  pored-over  and  prayed-over  copy  of  his  Matthew  Henry." — 
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Prebendary  Row,  M.  A., 

S.  R.  Pattison,  F.  G.  S., 

Henry  Wace,  D.D., 

F.  Godet,  D.D., 

Sir  W.  Muir, 

Rev.  G.  F.  Maclear,  D.D., 

Rev.  W.  S.  Lewis,  M.  A., 

W.  G.  Blackie,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

Dean  of  Canterbury, 

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A  nd  others. 


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Please  notice  that  this  is 
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therefore,  within  reach  of 
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fiedly indorsed  as 


'  Jamieson,  Fausset  &  Brown's  Commentary 

On  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  It  has  been  tried, 
tested  and  proven,  during  one  of  the  most  active  periods 
ever  known  in  Biblical  research.  That  it  has  not  been 
found  wanting  is  evident  in  the  still  unabated  demand.  At 
considerable  outlay  we  have  issued  a  new  edition  of  this 
valuable  work,  in  clear  type,  attractively  bound,  and  at  a 
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marvel  of  cheapness." — Rt.  Rev,  J.  H.  Vincent,  D.  Dm  in 
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A   ^TIPP  F^TIfttf     Send  for  the  first  volume  and  see  what  a  mine  of 


want  the  full  set. 


wealth  is  in   these   "Notes."      You  will  surely 


"C.  H.M.'s"  NOTES. 


OR 


THE  GOSPEL  IN  THE  PENTATEUCH 


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These  Books  are  not  Commen- 
taries, in  the  ordinary  under- 
standing of  that  word  ;  they  are 
of  a  more  popular  style ;  helpful, 
suggestive,  inspiring. 


GENESIS,  EXODUS,. LEVITICUS, 

NUMBERS  AND  DEUTERONOMY. 

Read  thefollowmg  Commendations  from  well-known 
Pastors,  Evangelists,  L?.ymen,  Etc. 
"Some  years  since  I  had  my  attention  called  to  C.  H. 
M.'s  Notes,  and  was  so  much  pleased,  and  at  the  same 
time  profited  by  the  way  they  opened  up  Scriptural 
truths,  that  I  secured  at  once  all  the  writings  of  the 
same  author.  They  have  been  to  me  a  very  key  to  the 
Scriptures:'  D.  L.  MOODY. 

"Under  God  they  have  blessed  me  more  than  any 
books  outside  of  the  Bible  itself,  that  I  have  ever  read, 
and  have  led  me  to  a  love  of  the  Bible  that  is  proving 
an  unfailing  source  of  profit." 

Maj.  D.  W.  WHITTLE. 

Deuteronomy  is  issued  in  two  volumes,  the  others  complete  in  one 
volume  each. 

Separate  volumes  may  be  had  if  desired. '  Sent  post  paid  to  any 
address  on  receipt  of  price. 

The  complete  set  in  six  volumes*  covering  over  2,300  pages,  it 
offered  at  the  reduced price  of  7Bc.  per  Vol.  or  $4.50  per   Set. 


new  yur  K.- 


Fleming H.  Revell  Company    chicaqp 


Date  Due 

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